When they got back to the Professor's office Rouge had taken over cooing over James and was sat cross legged on the floor with him.
"hey. Long time no see." she said as she looked up when Jean and Rose entered.
"hey. Yeah its been a while. What has it been? Ten, maybe eleven years?" Jean noticed the coldness in Rouge and Rose's verbal exchanges.
"ok this is awkward." Jean mumbled to herself as she walked away. She slumped into a chair and turned to the Professor. "just a cold, maybe the flu. She's absolutely fine."
Rose sat in a vacant chair and smiled down at James who was crawling along the floor towards Jean.
The comfortable silence that had filled the room was replaced by an uncomfortable one as Scott entered. He stopped, cast a puzzled look at Jean, who was holding James and slowly started to back out of the room.
"Scott, I don't believe you've met our guest. This is Rose." the Professor said, indicating Rose sat in a chair and exchanging cold, hateful looks with Rouge.
Scott threw a warning look at Rose. Storm was the only one who noticed it.
Rose extended a hand towards him "hi. But please call me Rogan. I hate being called Rose." Rose shook his hand with a polite smile.
All the while Scott was in the room he kept throwing confused looks towards Jean who was still playing with James. After a few minutes, with an almost evil grin, Rose turned to Scott and said, in a voice full of cold hatred "Don't worry he's mine." A look of pure horror flitted momentarily across Scott's features. It lingered for a second before Scott could eventually bring himself to say "he looks like you."
"I'm just thankful he didn't get his father's eyes."
This time Storm wasn't the only one to notice the icy way Rose spoke. Nor was she the only one to notice the venom and hatred in Rose's voice.
Jean, Rouge and Storm threw nervous glances at each other.
"I need to put James down for a nap. Where can I put him. Preferably I'd like to put him somewhere quiet but within ear shot." Rose said.
"you could put him in my room." Logan said. With a smile, Rose followed Logan out of the Professor's office.
"is Logan's room really within earshot?" Jean said after a few minutes pause. She had her back to the door so didn't notice Rose and Logan slip back into the room.
"it is for me." she said. Jean jumped and spun round quickly. She noticed that this time it was Logan who was throwing Scott venomous looks.
Rose spent the day sat in the Professor's office chatting to various members of the X-men as they came and went between classes.
She was shaken awake at half 11 by Logan. She'd fallen asleep in an armchair.
"hey. You ok?" he said soothingly.
"yeah I'm fine. Christ I should have been looking after James. Is he ok?" she sat up quickly and blinked. The only light on in the room was a single lamp on a table by the door. It wasn't very bright but the light it cast was enough to highlight the edges of Logan's face.
"its fine. I think Storm has become attached to him. She took care of him and put him to bed. He's in my room. We were going to wake you earlier but Jean said it would be best to let you sleep for a bit."
"Thanks Logan. I can move him out of your room when you go up to bed." she stretched awkwardly. Her immediate conclusion was that this had been a bad idea. Her small frame shook violently as she coughed. Logan lifted her so she was sitting up properly and thumped her back. When the spluttering stopped she took a deep breathe.
"you sure you're ok?" Logan frowned.
"yeah just a bit of a cold. Nothing I can't get over." she gulped "I better go and check on James." she got up and left Logan watching her back with a worried expression.
Logon's room was exactly how all the rooms had been in the various houses they'd crashed in. There were t-shirts strewn across the floor and several pairs of socks sticking out of one of a drawer.
When she entered Logan's bedroom her eye was immediately drawn to a glint of silver on the bedside table. She looked round. A small lamp on the bedside table was switched on. Underneath the lamp was a set of dog tags. She picked them up. The name Rogan was engraved on the silver dog tag. She smiled to herself. More than a small part of her was glad to see Logan still had her old dog tags. When James sighed in his sleep she turned round sharply. It took her a few moments to realise it had just been James making noises. She walked over to the fold up crib someone had no doubt taken out of the back of her car and peered into it. James was fast asleep. He smiled in his sleep. Rose smiled down at him. She remembered when he was first born. He'd not had his father around but she'd had help from a friend with raising him. She thought he'd have had sense to keep James away from here. But no. She guessed he had things to do. But it could be dangerous here. It was far too dangerous for someone as young as James.
"he looks a lot like you."
Rose spun round. With a metallic unsheathing sound, before Logan could blink he found himself pinned against the door. His automatic reaction meant that Rose found herself with Logan's claws resting against her throat.
"oh its you. Sorry." Rose retracted her claws and Logan breathed out. Logan in turn lowered his arm.
"sorry. I guess I shouldn't have crept up like that."
"its fine. I've just been a it jumpy the past few days." Rose went back to looking over the edge of the crib.
"he really does look like you." Logan stood next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. Instead of looking down into the crib he watched Rose's silhouette.
"so I'm told." she bent down and pulled the blanket up to James's torso.